Are you between the age of 20 and 45? Would you like to get to know Minneapolis Friends Meeting people your age? Kyle and Heather Johnson are hosting a mid-day potluck dinner for MFM members / attenders 20-45 years old TODAY, 2-5pm. Ask Pat for details this morning if you need them.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE FNVW HOLIDAY FAIR CRAFT TABLE against the back wall. GREAT VALUES BOARD DEALS!!! Today is the last day to purchase items. GIVE WHAT YOU FEEL IS APPROPRIATE.

Boxing Books: If you have some time at the close of 11:15 wroship, the FNVW Book committee would greatly appreciate help in boxing books in the loft for St. Vincent de Sales. They will be picking them up this week. We just need to box them.

UPCOMING MEETING HAPPENINGS

Do you play an instrument? Bring it next Sunday at 10:15 when we will be making music, visiting with one another, and having refreshments in the 45 minutes between meetings for worship. Can you set up a serving area upstairs, or bring some fruit, muffins, or something else for the refreshment table, or make coffee? Please tell Jim Lovestar what you can contribute.

Do you ever see people at Meeting and not know their names? This is the reason behind the Meeting’s decision to contract with Lifetouch to produce an MFM pictorial directory. There is no cost to the Meeting or to you to have your photograph taken and included, and you will receive a free 8 by 10 photo and a directory for participating. You can view your images electronically immediately after being photographed and can purchase additional photos if you wish.

Don’t wait any longer! Sign up now, mark your calendar, and alert family members who might be in town to come in for a family photo! You are welcome to bring family members, friends, dogs, cats, musical instruments- whomever and whatever you would like to be photographed with. You can get a photo for the directory and other one/s for whatever purpose you would like.

Thank you to the 31 households who have already signed up! There are at least 55+ households not yet signed up, and we don’t want to miss out on your picture being included because this whole thing gets lost in the Christmas shuffle.

We need help between now and January – assisting with sign-ups, hosting during the sessions, setting up coffee or bringing treats! Call or email the office to volunteer or for details.

The Quaker reading group is reading aloud and discussing the October 2014 issue of Friends Journal, “Experiences of Friends of Color.” Some of the articles are available online: friendsjournal.org . This Wed, Dec 17th, 7 pm, here. No homework.

White Envelope Gift is a tradition at Minneapolis Friends, a special offering that takes place at Christmastime. Monthly Meeting decides who the recipient(s) will be, following a recommendation from a group which has met to consider nominations. The Peace and Social Concerns Committee, after a couple months of research and consideration, is making this recommendation to monthly meeting today: half to the American Refuge Committee for a new Ebola-prevention program in a Liberian town near the Ivory Coast border; $300 of the second half to Judy Sausen’s Duluth shelter for a heater to make another bedroom usable; the remainder of the second half for Open Arms, a meals delivery program for people who are sick.

A great big “Thank you” to all volunteers, bakers, and shoppers of this year’s Friends for a Nonviolent World Holiday Fair. Profits were the highest ever, over $12,000, and not all money has been collected! We sincerely hope you had time to visit with friends and enjoy some delicious food. We know you bought some beautiful gifts for yourselves or friends, all the while knowing you were supporting the work of Friends for a Nonviolent World programs. THANK YOU!

Bring some holiday cheer to Loaves and Fishes! Our next meal prep and service will be Dec 29th, Holy Rosary Church, 2424 – 18th Ave So, Mpls. The shifts are: 2:30-4:30, cooking (5 needed); 4:45-6:45, serving (10 needed); 5:30-7:00, clean-up (5 needed). Also needed, 20 batches of cookies (4 dozen to a batch), delivered to the meetinghouse on the 28th or brought to Holy Rosary by 5:00 on the 29th. Help is needed in all areas! Look for sign-up on the sheet soon.

Build community and get to know and be known by relative newcomers to the meeting! Outreach and Welcoming Committee is sponsoring a series of home potlucks in February, March and April, 2015. For details, see the fact sheets and sign-up sheets on the elevator table. You can also sign-up by phoning Keitha.

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. Please give as you are able. To meet our budget obligations, contributions need to average $2,171 per week. The average weekly contributions in Nov. was $1,348.65. Thank you, Friends, for your generous support of the Meeting in all manner of ways.

OTHER HAPPENINGS AMONG QUAKERS

Some call it worship sharing, others call it lectio divina. Come to an open hearted study of Quaker and biblical quotes, 12-12:30, this Wed, Dec. 17th, at Kenwood Isles. Light lunch to follow. FFI, call Steve or Mary.

Twin Cities Friends Meeting is hosting a forum of queries and responses to the challenges offered in Rex Ambler’s The Quaker Way (Christian Alternative Press, 2013); 7:00 Thurs.evenings, Jan 22nd – Feb 19th. You will need a copy of the book (available at QuakerBooks.org). You need not attend all of the forums, but are encouraged to try! Some preparation is expected: completing the reading (chp. one for the first gathering), marking two or three ideas that you find challenging, and mentally composing that challenge as a Query to offer the group. John Cowan, Lois Yellowthunder, Howard Vogel are leading the sessions. RSVP to stillsittingJohn(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com

COMMUNITY EVENT: Mayim Rabim is offering “The Many Stories of Chanukah,” taught by Rabbi Sharon Stiefel, TODAY, 4:00 – 5:30 PM, here. Learn about the many themes and layers of Chanukah, some emphasized, some kept more hidden.

OFFICE HOURS

Pat Jones will be in the office Wednesday from 2:00-5:00 and other times Wed, Thurs, Fri. and Sat.

Carolyn VandenDolder, the Administrative Assistant, will be in Wed. afternoon and Fri. Bulletin deadline, noon Thur. Bulletin items can be phoned in to the office, emailed or written and put in the bulletin file of the blue box.